![Basic + Advanced guide to Dead Frontier 2 [Outdated sorta] for Dead Frontier 2](https://steamsolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/basic-advanced-guide-to-dead-frontier-2-outdated-sorta-dead-frontier-2.jpg)
Overview
previously titled: How to maximize lvl up (prestige build). Changed at the suggestion of a commentor to better fit / help new players find guides.Alright so after much tinkering i found the best way to lvl up in terms of stats and weapons/items to use and avoid and how to utilize this game to be your ♥♥♥♥♥.Do note this is a non specific build meant to utilize all xp forms in-game (cept pvp it hasn’t really kicked off yet sadly and no one really pvps often enough to be a reliable source of xp). Plus this is mostly a speed rush guide on how to be versatile and lvl up fast enough.With this you should be able to take on everything lower than a bloody juggernaut…erm titan (well you can do tendril but you’ll need a ♥♥♥♥ ton of speed). Actually come to think of it bloody juggernauts need some speed too but not AS MUCH as tendrils. Well whatever without further aduieLet’s begin shall we?(before you ask source: My own experiences as well as the wikis and other sites atm max prestige 5 lvl 30 on both free characters you get when you make an account).edit: due to the new update some of this has been outdated. I made a new semi small guide continuation of whats new and what to do about it:https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2525526678Some stuff still holds but overall stuffs been changed and i listed the stuff that was changed there.
Gameplay Basics: How to lvl up?
Basically almost everything you do that’s not on the player or player controlled market/trader gives you xp:
- killing ♥♥♥♥ (zombies, mutant boss zombies, and players)
- Doing quests/missions (interacting with npcs and getting their objective done then returning back to them)
- interacting with the world (unlocking locked doors and looting bodies/furniture or items glowing yellow)
You don’t get xp for selling stuff on the market or eating/drinking/healing yourself.
Gameplay Basics: Boosts and special cases
Alright so there’s special cases where you can actually get some extra xp boosts:
- The only daily boost atm is the outpost attack: If an OA happens and you kill a certain amount of zombies you can get either outpost defender or outpost guardian (depending on how many you kill). The OA also has to be defended. Both give the same stats but different amounts (20% for outpost defender and 40% for outpost guardian)
If you lose the outpost then you don’t get the buffs. Still, zombies killed during the outpost attacks give extra xp regardless and you do not lose that.
- There’s weekend or special events when you can get extra xp boosts (we just had the anniversary event where everyone got 25% xp and 500% elite chance find yesterday or if you’re reading this it was on Friday September 6th 2019).
- Special seasonal events have drops like halloween and christmas which drop halloween/christmas candy that give an xp boost for 20 mins i believe. There’s still some on the market but they’re rather expensive. Best wait for the event.
- as of the past 2 seasonal updates (halloween and christmas) candy has been replaced with seasonal zombies that grant an enormous amount of xp (almost as much as/more than special infected/normal bosses excluding juggernauts/roid hulks/titans and tendrils). Ironically they’re affected more by infected damage than mutant/boss damage.
- Fast learner and xp boost clothing items give extra xp. So long as you have the perk selected or the clothing items on it’ll give you extra xp (fast learner is permanent while stat items are temporary).
Gameplay Basics: Some useful sites
There’s only 2 main sites you need to know:
DF2 wiki
[link]
DF2 Haven which is in the pinned posts on the forum
[link]
though the wiki hasn’t really been updated much since launch of the game and haven relies on people to post so if no one has posted or done the mission you’re looking for then it won’t be there.
Either way both are still good sources of info and the mission guides can help you pre-plan missions in cities/towns ahead of time.
Gameplay Basics: Skills and what you can and cannot use
Been seeing this alot around the servers so i may as well address it. Some perk skills you cannot use without having at least the lvl 1 skill selected. Even if you have clothing stats say 11% lockpick chance of 0% is still 0.
skills that require the stats to works:
-lockpick=need at least lockpick 1 to make use of the lockpick buff items
-sneak/stealh=need at least stealth 1 to crouch. I do believe visibility is still passive someone double check for me. Not that it doesn’t matter since zombies will still hear you so seeing is pretty useless. Hold down Ctrl to sneak (really should be toggled so you don’t strain your wrists holding the ctrl and wasd movement keys).
-sprint=need at least lvl 1 sprinter to work. Shift to sprint.
-Dodge=need at least lvl 1 quick reflexes to work. Spacebar to dodge
-Kick=need at least lvl 1 kickboxing to work. mouse 2 (right click) to kick.
everything else should be passive/not require the skills to work. This includes weekend events such as a global damage boost or global speed boost.
As of post updates there has been a cap. If i remember it was something like -75% like visibility and cooldowns, -95% on resistances (so goodbye temporary 100% no debuff using things like burn kits), and i think +300% max positive stat buffs.
Negative reductions aside i can’t find someone who’ll reach +300% of anything unless you have a global event or they’re hacking (probably why it was put so people won’t be able to one shot bosses and ♥♥♥♥). You probably could reach about +200% but that’s with both the perk skills and stat clothing/weapon items
Most i’ve seen is about/around 43% so about 45% probably max on a single clothing item x 4 for 2 weapons 2 clothing on average=180%. Though if you have an all item stat like % hydration on everything but shoes inc. it another 90% so around 270%. Though this is based on assumptions idk how much max clothing there is and it’s probably there for future updates when lvl 50 drops % buffs will probably be scaled up as well.
Getting started: The bare basics
I’d count yourself lucky b/c if you’re starting out RN or wanna prestige and focus on an xp build then most new starting items are relatively very cheap. Anyhow this is assuming you’re starting as a new character/account or restarted by prestiging and were a dumbass like me in my first prestige and forgot to stock up/loot bosses for starting items in dalbow)
If you’re already used to the game i’d say skip this section as it’s just mostly clarification on what you start off as
Before anything you have to create a charcter. You can choose either man or woman. None have any advantage aside from player model on cosmetics/clothing and voices. After you create a character it’s where the fun begins:
1. You spawn as a new character with damaged items. You start with damaged clothes, no shoes or gloves or a hat only a shirt and pants, a damaged 2 X 4, and a damaged ivan pistol with some .32 ammo
2. you spawn in Dalbow; the first lvl 1 area where everyone starts off at.
2.5 Dalbow is special b/c it’s the first area and the 1st outpost you see: the Dalbow Police Department. Going to the outpost saves any xp you earn upon entering.
The outpost also has:
-npcs whom give quests (some just are there for standing around/make the outpost feel fuller).
-a trader npc to sell/buy/scrap items you find or have
-a trainer who can reset your skills for irl money (or credit conversion) or prestige once you reach max lvl 30
-a cosmetic trader whom you can buy cosmetic skins for clothing/weapons for credits (in-game currency that costs irl money).
-A mailbox to send messages/money or get money if you leave and sell items in the trader/private trade sales
-a universal account stash box that you can access in either Dalbow or the other outposts (Havernbrook Hospital and Greywood Hotel).
3. You start with 1 free stat point to use. You can allocate this to whatever stat/perk you wanna use.
4. you start with a no fuel damaged car parts vehicle. This will be your main way of traveling from city to city or town to town rather. Traveling requires both fuel, a certain amount of your food and drink bar (or hydration and energy may as well point that out since terminology in-game).
5. You can access your player menus with either default tab key=opens the player menu in-game, or the escape/esc key=opens up the game menu for things like settings and exiting out. I highly recommend you check out the game controls before you start (well that goes without saying for any game tbh as you can set your controls and settings to whatever keys/brightness and ♥♥♥♥).
Getting started: what to do next
Alright so you familiarized yourself with everything and got a hang of the game before you started playing by tinkering with settings and reading the previous post. Now what?
Well what you should do is:
1. You get one stat to allocate. Put it into fast learner for a 5% xp gain. From now on everything you do you literally do a little better which helps without even doing anything yet.
2. Head directly to the Dalbow PD (police department) and go to the trader npc
3. Sell your ammo and scrap all the rest of the items (you can easily sell the items for the average price of the last 3 items sold in other words it’s usually the cheapest items that get sold so you can just quick sell). This should yield to about $150 (you have $50 when you spawn. Probably should’ve pointed that out in the previous section but whatever).
3.5 Alternatively the stash box actually can be accessed to any outpost OR character in your account. You can scrap all your items, buy say ammo or a food item and put it into the stash. That or just put all your items you spawn with in the stash and make a new character, delete the old one, and rinse and repeat until you feel you got a good enough head start.
4. Buy a melee weapon. Any lvl 1 item will do that’s not damage (hell even a normal white rarity no stat item 2 X 4 is already much better than the damaged ♥♥♥♥ you have).
5. Talk to any NPCs in the outpost. Most are directly in the lobby, the rooms from the main lobby, or the surrounding rooms/doors from those rooms. These npcs will give you quests. Some are in the next lvl 5 towns: Coppertown and Archbrook. Skip those for now and focus on the missions in dalbow. DF2 haven is your best friend in this case which helps you find the areas you need to go to immediately.
6. Do the missions and start looting along the way. Most are find X person or item which are relatively easy to do. Quests/missions are very fast and efficient ways to get both xp and $$$ cash to get a great leap into the game.
7. You should lvl up rather easily to lvl 2. Once done invest in Sprinter. This will be a game changer as you can now outrun zombies even if just for emergencies.
8. Once you get enough $$$ from missions or ammo from looting get a gun from the market that uses it. It doesn’t have to be/have stats just a normal variant will do for now. My best recommendation is the 20 gauge shotgun or the .32 pistols. Avoid smgs entirely. Go boss hunting and kill them in the quick 1 door shop buildings. It’s easy to find the key and you get xp for looting and unlocking the door. Most zombies go down easily with 30 rounds of any ammunition type so long as you shoot the mutant bosses in the head. If you feel really daring you can melee them but i highly don’t recommend this as they can throw up on you sometimes.
9. With this strategy you should now have more than enough xp to reach at least lvl 3 with all the bosses killed in the area, looted, and some missions done.
10. If you reach lvl 3-4 you should invest in reload and jogg (in that order).
11. All the loot you get from bosses can either be sold or more likely scrapped for okay amount of starting money. If it’s something useful keep if not scrap as most lvl 5 and below items don’t sell as well/fast.
12. Get some fuel and if you looted or if not buy some car parts (at least normal and replace all the broken 4 car parts). Also get a roof box to expand storage at least 10 inventory slots. Have enough fuel to go back and forth.
13. Go onto the next area either coopertown or Archbrook.
Some tips are to get some help from other players. They’ll usually be glad to help out a newbie get a head start.
if you do it right you should be able to lvl up relatively fast (as lvl 1-5 are the fastest lvl up and it stops around lvl 10 or slows down a bit at lvl 10 using this formula).
Here are some screenshots of how i did a naked run (b/c i didn’t get items before hand and didn’t wanna spend money on low lvl items) when prestiging and pretty much lvl’d up in a couple of mins to lvl 5 easily. Actually started a new character but was too lazy/forgot to get screenshots. Before you say yes i had outpost guardian beforehand but it works without it and on my new character too (just not as fast b/c i had to get some $$$ first but it still went relatively fast).
Stay in your lane: do stuff at your lvl
Probably should go without saying but stay at your respective lvl maybe just the next 5 lvls above you (ex: if you’re lvl 3 the next lvl would be lvl 5 areas, lvl 23 lvl 25 areas, etc.). Overall you gain more xp but you also waste more effort and ammo killing zombies/mutant bosses.
The only ones that get a pass on this is/are missions (excluding exterminate missions). You can pretty much focus at your lvl, kill things and loot at your lvl, and overall find items at your lvl (killing a lvl 25 area boss won’t grant a lvl 25 item if you’re barely a lvl 15 as they go by your highest lvl and cap at the area’s lvl).
You can go with some buddies but overall you won’t loot high lvl items (only items at your lvl) and be a burden especially on bosses (if you get a juggernaut or tendril you’re pretty much gonna be a liability and die 80% of the time).
again missions get a pass (cept exterminate missions) b/c they’re more direct/foward and objective based.
At lvl 15 with the build you can pretty much go wherever without much risk but still recommend staying to at most the next 5 lvl area above yours
You can somewhat by-pass them with extra clothing skills (like infected if you get headshot and %infected damage it’d make it easier to kill the zombies but at lower lvls like 20 and below it’s not really possible for 21 and above are the lvls when you start getting higher % value stats on items). But overall if you wanna use them for something else (like sprint or inventory capacity etc.) best to stay in your lane or go but in a group of at least 2 or more people.
if the number/area are red you’re dead, if it’s yellow you’re mellow, and if it’s green you’re sure to weeen….erm win!
Solo Route or Party route?
Ah yes the ultimate Dilemma.
Lone Wolf or In a party/clan/group
probably should’ve put this first lol
though you can somewhat skip this if you want to
Each type of playstyle has its own advantages and disadvantages though tbh they’re pretty much atm non-existent least for a few execptions
There is no disadvantage in terms of loot. Everyone can loot the same loot spawn, corpse, and boss corpse for loot. It’s not a first come first serve basis. Same goes for missions where each person can get and turn in as well as get the reward for missions.
Lone wolfing can be somewhat better if you plan on taking your time or route
vs
following or leading a group.
There is a disadvantage to a group though in that zombies get a little tougher with each person added. Tested this out before where a zombie that could be 1 shot headshotted would take 2 shots to kill with a 2nd person added. I’m not too sure if it stacks with more people or if bosses get more health too but i do know that for regular zombies/non-mutant boss zombies they do inc. a bit.
Same goes for outpost attacks
it’s much easier to kill them in a lower group than in a larger party individually. But still, as a whole you can protect the doorways easier than solo.
There’s also the speed and differences in skills for each person. For example a high looter skill player can loot and move faster than a non-looter skilled but search speed player, and more faster that person than a normal no looter no search speed skilled person.
Each person in a group should be assigned a different role or task best suited to their skills.
For example a sneak skill person can deal insane damage to bosses even without %headshot or %mutant damage stats as well as remain hidden so that the bosses don’t focus too much on them and focus on another person instead. Likewise a dodge and high jogg player may be better suited to kite the bosses while a high damage smg user would be the main firepower for the group.
An upside for team based playing is ammo finding. Usually you never find the ammo type you want or are using (rpg 101). This is done intentionally (or unintentionally but still works) to help people trade and not just become self reliant on themselves (honestly being able to sell sell sell and never need to buy anything from the trader gets boring at times and no money to spend anywhere).
In a group/party you have a much higher chance someone finds or doesn’t use/need certain ammo types as well as guns and clothing. When this happens it’s best to trade/barter or to buy with money from each other.
Atm you don’t need to barricade a temporary outpost like in DF1 to trade or buy/sell within each other. You can send a direct trade to someone and they can accept or buy it so long as they are in the game.
Another advantage to group tasks is making enemies easier to defeat. Sure they get stronger (at least normal zombies) but safety in numbers. If you have a room full of say 12 zombies (large room btw) and you need to clear them to loot an item/one of them has an item then it’s easier and faster as well as more economical to clear the room in a group.
One massive disadvantage to parties though is availability as well as xp share. If you shoot a boss or zombie but someone else does too then you share the xp between you. Though less on zombies since they die easily, they’re much more present in bosses. You do however; waste less time effort and ammo gunning down a boss in a group vs solo. Though in zombies they can actually not give you a chance to kill any. If you had to kill say 3 zombies you’d get the xp for them but if they beat you to the punch then your teammates get the xp and you get nothing.
The other downside is availability. If you wanna do often the party route than you’ll need a dedicated team of individuals who are free whenever you are. If you pick randoms on the spot players than sometimes they may not be willing to go with the flow and help you out.
Whichever you pick though doesn’t really affect overall xp much in hindsight.
edit: recent update removed the penalty for zombies when pairing up so that’s a positive since people complained they scaled even if you didn’t group up just having people nearby would inc. the zombie health.
Loot: How does it work?
Ah yes loot. The cornerstone of this game. Gets you anything from food and water to meds and ammo/guns/clothing and car parts of course.
at lvl 1 starting you can loot any low tier gun clothing and ammo and almost every food drink and meds with the exception of paramedic bags unlocked at lvl 20.
as you progress every 5 lvls you unlock a new clothing, gun, and ammo type more or less
ammo=you unlock new guns and ammo at lvl 5 you get to loot 9mm ammo. At lvl 10 you unlock the 12 gauge and 7.62 mm rifle ammo. At lvl 15 you unlock .357 pistol ammo. And at lvl 30 you unlock .38special pistol ammo. Aside from .357 ammo pistols/smgs share the same ammo types.
guns=every 5 lvls you unlock a new gun to loot. Any of the current 4: pistol, shotgun, smg, rifle. Same for melee weapons. Chainsaws are only atm once every 10 lvls to lvl 10 are hedgetrimmers, lvl 20 dilmars, and lvl 30 ronan pros.
clothing=varies but typically you can loot a new type of clothing every 5 lvls be it pants, shirts, shoes, gloves, or hats. At lvl 20 you unlock the last bit of atm end-game clothing which include things like firefighter helmets.
Generally loot tends to follow certain patterns for example police departments are more likely to have more ammo in them, hospitals and psych wards meds, shops and taverns food and beverages, and clothing and ammo can be found in living apartments, houses, or hotels/buildings in general.
Bosses and locked rooms will always spawn either a clothing or weapon. The rarity varies but for loot rooms anything goes and bosses it’s either rare or elite grade clothing/weapons.
Areas to loot
It goes without saying again but with this setup you can’t truely take on lvl 25+ areas. You’ll need to stick to lvl 20 and below areas in terms of melee usage.
Not that it really affects you much tbh. Lvl 25+ areas you get slightly more ammo, lvl 25+ weapons, and 38special ammo. Literally every other single thing can be looted in lvl 20 or below areas.
Why am i telling you this? Simple. Looting is slightly more profitable and less risky (solo anyhow) if you stick to lvl 20 and below areas. With melee expert at max you can pretty much one shot most skinny special infected zombies and swing fast enough to hit at most 3 zombies and then kill or stumble back the 4th-6th zombie(s) coming you after the original 3 (or however many after the initial melee swing).
I personally prefer lvl 15 areas because of the boss rooms having at most a juggernaut (and with this guide you wanna avoid tendrils, bloody juggs, and bloody tendies as much as posible).
If you loot a higher lvl area i recommend taking a pistol and clothing with high headshot stats. You already have a high reload and ammo capacity so the only thing that would be missing would be a high damage. It takes some practice but with the default weapon stats (in terms of range aim speed amd accuracy) you can pretty much land headshots in a rather faster and accurate way than waiting 2-3 seconds to focus and get a high accuracy.
If not don’t worry. Zombies in lvl 25+ areas will almost always rush at you, making it mucj easier to land headshots. Still takes practice eith the timing so you don’t get hut but not as much as longer ranged shots.
In lvl 20 areas though you get the added benefit of being able to melee only as lvl 25+ areas most likely have AoE debuffing bacterial and on-fire zombies. This makes it harder/more dangerous to get a debuff or low health so weapons are advised. Also in lvl 25+ areas theres more zombies per room and more tanky making it harder to kill with just a melee.
edit:
forgot to add this but Cromer and Sons located in (♥♥♥♥ forgot the name the area to the right of havernbrook) is always lvl 30. Even if the area is lvl 15 or 10 the building is always lvl 30 with about 20+ floors and a group of 3 bosses in the same tiny room (type of bosses varies) in one of the highest floors closest to the top/closer to the top.
This is the ultimate building if you got time to loot for xp and loot especially with a looter/infected zombie buffs/stats.
Sadly all 3 bosses only give the xp and loot for 1. It’s more of a bragging rights thing if you can kill them in a party let alone solo (looking at you evangelion and other DF2 YTubers). Actually beat them a couple of times solo and about 2X in a party.
edit 2: As of the open world update mansions were added. From experience they do seem to have a ton of more higher end items and find more ammo for each ammo box you loot compared to other buildings. It’s a high risk high reward since the rooms are bigger and there are more zombies in the room as well as the rooms and hallways being longer/larger like in the first couple of weeks before the rooms were scaled down in buildings (even before exit signs / white txts were added).
also cromer and son’s now randomly appears in the map not just 1 spot anymore
Maximizing XP walkthough
The sequence to maximize xp gain would be as follows.
Let me point out first that this is better done around lvl 10 once you establish yourself some more and unlock 2nd grade ammo (9mm pistol, 12 gauge shotgun, and 7.62mm rifle ammo). It also helps to get some money beforehand since ammo can be expensive or whatever else you’re missing if you don’t loot enough items/the items you want atm. Also helps to get some pre-planned routes such as for missions to loot for a certain item in the same area you’ll be grinding bosses.
1. looting for ammo and items to sell/scrap about 1-2 hours before an outpost attack occurs. Also doing missions and finding boss locations to come back to after the OA occurs.
2. If dalbow or Havernbrook it’s mostly a guranteed no more than 1/2 health depleted win; but greywood, there is a 70/30 odds against your favor attack (still grinding the extra xp giving zombies is worth doing greywood OA).
What i mean by this is during the OA grinding zombies and getting outpost defender/guardian (defender is usually at lvl 5-15 and guardian is easier obtained at lvl 20 once you start investing more into melee expert). This small buff would help afterwards for…
3. boss hunting and missions.
You got 2 hours after an OA to use the xp boost. Grinding bosses is probably the best way to utilize the xp and %find elite boost. When searching for the key you can also find more ammo when you find an ammo loot. There are limited bosses in-game so save them for the xp boost to really utilize them fully. During the boss runs it’s best to try to do the quick and easy find X person (and they’re dead find the body to loot or area to loot it from). Also finding X item or blood sample missions can be done relatively fast and easy but it shouldn’t be prioritized over killing the bosses in the area.
4. Once it ends, continue looting or doing missions. and wait for the next OA (if you have the time if not just do 1 and then continue looting and doing missions normally). Part of the important versatile speed build is looting an entire area in a relatively short amount of time. You don’t need to really loot high lvl areas to get the same loot once you reach lvl 20 unless you wanna get specific clothing / weapons. Things like food/drinks/energy buff items(energy drinks coffee granules)/ammo can all be found in even lvl 1 areas (i ♥♥♥♥ you not i looted .357 ammo in dalbow). Looting helps replenish your inventory with items you’ll need especially ammo. The rest can be sold off easily or scrapped in the trader at the outposts.
It’s important to have some spare money for emergencies. Sometimes special events pop up where spending $$$$$ > spending the same amount in any other time. Prices inflate a bit but it’s well worth it to take advantage of the special events.
I’m gonna point out that pvp atm is not beneficial unless you wanna cheese it with someone to get the permanent 1st place 5% damage vs human/infected/mutant buff which isn’t really worth the trouble/effort. Also even if it was; this guide wouldn’t really help you b/c pvping is all about specializing in damage to kill your opponent quicker than he can shoot you.
Outpost attacks: what to do and how to do them.
With an update awhile back outpost attacks make lvling up much easier. From the zombies you kill giving you extra xp to the overall outpost attack buff you get from participating or if you score high enough kills and the outpost holds.
Pre-outpost attack
When you go to your car or outside the town limits a map comes up. In the bottom shows how much longer till the next outpost attack. It almost always seems to be on the dot when the time changes to a whole number (like 8 o clock 2 o clock etc. not 2:59 or 3:01). At least for me anyhow. Before it starts you should start prepping for it at least 10 mins prior.
edit: Now outpost attacks doubled to 6 outpost attacks each day meaning you get a 4 hour break inbetween them instead of 8 hours.
Other things you can do is before it happens (if you have the time anyhow) do some missions and unlock all the boss doors in the apartments or the single door restaurants and convenience stores (shop and go, tempco direct, cuppa cafe, Albandale 38, etc.). You can also amass missions / mission items and turn them in after the outpost attack happens (if it doesn’t hold wait till the next one unless you do the final one for the day then just turn them in). Unlocking some missions and boss rooms makes it faster and easier as well as less time consuming to take advantage of the outpost attack buff.
During the Outpost attack
When the outpost attack happens a large red bar on top with the time limit and health of the outpost is shown (red bar=health for the outpost and timer=how much time is left as shown below in the screenshot). IF the health bar drops to zero before the outpost attack ends the outpost is lost and every npc inside but the trader and the utilities (storage box and mailbox stay but sadly the cosmetic trader and trainer disappear) stay but every other NPC leaves for 1 hour after the outpost attack failed. If it lasts you get a small buff (defender for just being there and guardian for killing a bunch of zombies).
As you can see i went in as a low lvl. It is possible (i believe i was lvl 3 and came up to lvl 5, a high enough lvl to get a washington during the outpost attack). The whole point of the outpost attack is to keep the zombies from the door for 30 mins. Do that and you basically win. Some weapons to consider for the outpost attack:
1. melee=best for saving on money and being able to hit multiple enemies at once essentially pushing them back from the entrance. You can solo but tbh it’s better if you get everyone meleeing zombies away from the door and basically forming a clockwork melee machine. Solo you’ll need a large infected damage buff, body damage buff, and/or melee attack speed. knockback is important too but if you had to sacrifice one i’d say make it least priority to get (then you’d just be pushing them back not really killing them or getting rid of them). It is possible to do it at a low lvl but again better left at higher lvls and if everyone is doing it (or at least 3 people and all aiming at the same zombie hoarde).
2. Shotguns=2nd best for the outpost attacks and best overall for low lvl players. As seen in the above screenshot a low lvl can pretty much be on guard duty. Push back zombies and it doesn’t require as much focus or aiming. Infact it’d be better to just spray and pray no aiming since you can hit and stumble back more zombies. It also helps with tagging zombies. By that i mean that if you hit a zombie and someone else kills it you get some xp as do they. However; since they’re alot of zombies, you can just go tagging several zombies and letting others kill them. As a low lvl it’s insanely easy to lvl up this method. The extra zombie xp actually works better b/c you don’t rob each other of much normal xp. The downside being is shotguns require more ammo costs and only carry 40 slugs a package making it harder to carry a good surplus and needing to constantly reload unless you put all/mostly 20 gauge cases into your inventory.
3. smgs=3rd best. They are more costly (even .32) but they’re made for this. Mass of zombies all piled into one area and being able to take down multiple ones or tag multiple ones. The nerf didn’t help out the cause but again it’s more about quantity than quality here with this one
4. pistols=4th 2nd to last but not least. They are good like smgs for tagging but have low knockback. The upside is ammo is rather less expensive or you waste less of it because you can control shots better instead of spray and pray
5. rifles=probably last place here b/c they’re more made for range. You can certainly try to pick them off from a range but once they swarm you you’ll be a sitting duck. Still if you’re on guard duty and not in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ greywood you can essentially be the spotter/picker to make sure zombies that elude your teammates / players helping defend don’t breach the doors. They’re powerful and can 1-3 shot depending on the outpost and zombies (with high enough stats and skills you can pretty much hold with a 5.56 ammo scout).
Post outpost attack
If it holds and you participated you get either outpost defender (20%) or if you do substantial killings you can get Guardian (40%) of %xp gained, %ammo found (not chance to find ammo but how much ammo you get when you find ammo), and %elite find chance. Aside from that you should get some good xp from killing or tagging zombies during the outpost attack itself. After it ends you should lvl up or be somewhat close to lvling up.
When it’s over you should turn in missions you did prior, go on a boss hunting spree with the unlocked doors, and/or continue looting. IMO looting > missions > boss hunting. Looting makes use of all of the buffs, missions make better use of the xp gain, and boss hunting really doesn’t do much in terms of xp gain unless you kill alot of them (at least 7+ to make any difference).
This lasts for 2 hours after the outpost ends. You can see how much time is left by hovering over the outpost attack buff.
another thing to do is get the outpost buff THEN PRESTIGE. Doing so can give you the buffs (it doesn’t go away). With all the missions you can accumulate before and then turn in afterwards you can easily breeze to lvl 10 hell even lvl 12 if you kill some low lvl bosses and zombies.
side note: bosses during the outpost attacks
it happens sometimes. Idk if they give more xp during the outpost attack but they’re a pain in the ass to deal with + the extra zombies around. Best take it out first before focusing on the zombies. Juggernauts and tendrils can be extremely deadly (greywood outpost attack only). If you run into one let the other players deal with it or team up against it.
Weapon rankings
This is more a ranking of the current weapons in-game: pistols, smgs, shotguns, rifles, and melees.
1. pistols=are the absolute most versatile weapon in-game more than melee. This is due to being able to take on any situation. They’re sorta the middle man for upgrading weapons to do specific things (they’re affected more by stats than other weapons that already have base stats like high accuracy or high damage/faster firing rate). Aside from 9mm; ammo is relatively cheaper than most other grades. Even if it isn’t it is if you factor in other grades are around 40-60 for shotgun and rifle while pistols have a 100 cap meaning if pistols cost $100 a box vs $80 shotgun box $100/100=$1 while $80/40=$2 per each bullet/slug.
For this guide pistols should be regarded as your go to due to their versatility.
2. melees=2nd most versatile in-game (they can’t really be used to kill mutant bosses. I mean they could but you’d take longer or probably die in the process [then again a guy killing a black titan in DF1 has proven me that someone will find a way eventually to utilize a melee boss killing build]). They’re the no ammo no reload but sadly bodyshot weapon meaning headshot bonuses don’t apply to melees.
Their main usefulness comes from being dual-purposed as a boost stick.
By this i mean melees, for whatever reason, can easily have stupidly high stats for no reason more than guns. Carrying one around with say 15% jogg helps. Hell even having a main melee and the backup stat dump melee is a viable tactic (especially for looting and outpost attacks).
They should be your 2nd go to for this guide/build. If you’re using it as a boost stick (say an elite 2X4 but it has insane jogg/sprint speed and %damage buffs) then it should be your first priority.
3. shotguns=having high damage and coverage make it a pretty useful weapon. It’s probably the best for one shotting most zombies and useful for shooting and running without focusing too much on bosses. Downsides are the long reload times and small magazine/clip sizes. Another downside is their rather smaller ammo boxes (40 per box) but 1 slug is usually all it takes for most zombies. Still the powerful and fast not really needing aiming style (since they fly everywhere but if something is close enough it’ll hit them anyway) are the main appeal of this weapon and can be useful in certain situations.
They are a neutral priority tbh. Take them if you must but if prices are too high fallback to either melee or pistols and sell the ammo for easy $$$$
4. Rifles=some of the less versatile weapons but still not last place. They are useful as pistols but the ranged style makes it more off putting. That and they’re better off at headshots. The downside being that most areas are usually too small to utilize the range. Thus the pistols shine more indoors while the rifles shine more outdoors or in more ranged combat as a backup shooter/suppressing fire.
They really shouldn’t be a top priority for this build/guide unless you get some good stats to go with them or just happen to loot alot of rifle ammo. Then by all means go for it and use it. Otherwise best to sell the ammo. In terms of price though sometimes rifle ammo is relatively cheaper than shotgun ammo. If that’s the case rifles would be above shotguns in priority b/c of pricing. But it fluctuates and shotguns overall have the higher priority advantage due to being a little more versatile.
5. smgs=probably the least versatile weapon out there. They’re probably more tailored to large hoardes or mutant bosses. The main downsides are that they require heavy stats and $$$$ to be able to keep up with the ammo costs. They do; however, kill at a rather faster rate than other weapons (even with the default speed they have).
Still for this guide/build they should be almost completely ignored/put aside until you wanna settle down on a prestige/reach 5th prestige and wanna do an smg build. You’re better off selling the SMG 9mm ammo for the huge inflation it suffers at times (especially after OA’s b/c of people restocking/stocking up for boss hunts afterwards).
edit: with the newest update on 9/26/2019, new weapons were added solidifying this a bit more.
Shotguns/rifles have become interchangeable due to the newer weapons having larger magazine sizes.
Pistols now can be used for boss hunting with the webster 1984 pistol.
SMGs may actually be somewhat also useful with the new ammo type/smg lvl 30 but it’d still waste a ton of ammo sadly no way around that especially with the -20% smg damage nerf.
Perks to get/build part 1
Alright so i already stated it but now i’ll go more indepth. You get at no prestige 30 points to put into stats/perks/skills.
After the 1st prestige you get 1 extra up to 5 extra at 5th prestige. You can max out perks at lvl 5 meaning you can get 30/5=6 perks + 1 extra perk at 5th prestige. You can lvl up the perk to the next lvl every 5 lvls, meaning from lvl 1-4 you can only get a lvl 1 perk/skill/stat while at lvl 5 you can upgrade an already existing skill into a lvl 2 like reload II or quickshot II. Every lvl up basically adds 2 perks together: so say a lvl 1 perk gives head hunter example gives 5% headshot. At lvl 2 you get 5% + 5%=10% and you’ll get 5% each lvl till lvl 5 capping at 25% (5% x 5=25%).
Best setup for your perks/stats/skills:
lvl 1: Fast Learner=get it immediately. Literally anything you do will already give you more xp which is the point of this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ guide. You get 5% each capping at 25% at lvl 5. In all fairness this alone is what sets you apart from another guy starting out or even a lvl or 2 ahead of you. No matter what he does you can do the same but with a 5% to 25% or more (with buff item stats) faster rate for xp gain. It saves alot on time, energy, effort, and overall costs in terms of ammo for things like boss hunting.
This skill right here will be your bread and butter. No matter what other skills you get (if you decide to ignore the rest of the recommendations) having any %xp gain will instantly ensure you get to lvl up faster.
lvl 2: Sprinter=being able to run away from zombies in emergencies is extremely useful and important. Otherwise you’re a sitting duck. You get the ability to run first and foremost. Then you get 5% of: sprint duration, sprint speed, and sprint cooldown. Being able to rush anywhere either away from danger or to turn in missions. Again you’ll do everything much faster than someone who doesn’t have it.
This is your left hand man skill. It’s useful not damage but utility wise since rushing everywhere along with jog helps move things along quicker than normally walking.
lvl 3: Reload=this gives some rather useful buffs. While it’s not immediate you’ll see it at lvl 2 for the perk stat. What it gives you is 5% walk speed (speed when reloading) and 10% reload speed (rate of reloading guns) and 10% ammo capacity (guns have a standard amount of bullets in the mag and this inc. how many are in the chamber). Reloading saves you some precious seconds and helps you not get caught with your pants down. 1-2 seconds reloading is a huge time saver if you factor in how often you reload.
This is your right hand man skill since it does most of the dirty work directly. Reloading gives you a better usage of all weapons. Shotguns and revolvers especially benefit from the slower reload speed compared to mag fed rifles, smgs, and other mag pistols.
lvl 4: Jogg=This is the perk that will be more useful at max than before but still needed. you get 5% jogg speed and cap at 25% which is a noteable difference. Jogg speed is your default speed that you “jogg” at (again walk speed is speed when reloading a gun otherwise i’d say walking lol). Just like sprinter, this will help you get from point A to point B faster or avoid enemies much easier. Saves on sprint meter too.
In combo with jogg both help get ♥♥♥♥ done quicker by rushing areas and helps not take damage often since you can avoid zombies and bosses easier. If you plan on grinding higher lvl and faster bosses this is your go to.
Now alot of people will say well if you just need 1 either jogg or sprinter for a speed boost. Why both? Well tbh Jogg is overall for normal walking (non-reload walking regular jogging speed when moving) and sprinter is for a small speed boost. Sure you can buff Jogg with items (4 max 2 weapons and 1 legs and 1 feet clothing items), but then you’ll focus on it too much and instead can be used for other things like inventory capacity or damage buffs. Also with both you can pretty much outrun anything except a Tendril, a bloody Juggernaut, and a Bloody Tendril but you should avoid those to begin with and i’ll tell you why in another section later on!!!
lvl 5: you unlock the ability to invest or raise any previous skills into lvl 2. You should stick to 4 perks and in that order (lvl up first fast learner then sprinter then reload then finally jogger) until you reach lvl 20 (to cap them at lvl 5 each). Trust me at lvl 20 you’ll see a noticeable difference. Having the 4 perks/stats/skills listed above at max early on at lvl 20 will be a huge time saver.
This is your standard base build (for almost anything cept melee build b/c of reload). With it you can pretty much rush anywhere or anything. Turning in missions, kiting mutant bosses, and exterminating infected normal/special infected normal zombies. If you factor in looter (or some loot speed) later down the line you can pretty much cheese through a prestige in about a week or 2 if you play casually.
Perks to get/build part 2
lvl 21-25: Invest into melee expert. The main reason being that zombies will be a much bigger nussiance than bosses. At lvl 20 you unlock the strongest in-game melee atm: the sledgehammer. The only thing is that the weapon is super slow. You get 5% attack speed (melee only), body damage, and knockback and stun. It’ll help you alot during OA to save on time and money not using bullets. It also almost always gurantees you’ll be able to get OA buff: Guardian status vs Defender.
Melee expert is better left at higher lvls b/c of the lvl creep. At lvls 1-19 it’s rather easier to lvl up faster through missions and boss hunting with some looting. At lvl 20+ bosses and zombies drain more resources and takes a little longer to lvl up. Hell bloody mutant bosses will drain your ammo budget by alot.
This is also the lvls when you can start looting higher end stats like 20%+ for most normal skills excluding speed and lockpick/resistances skills (mostly things like damage and reload/attack speed skills). Thus once you loot attack speed items with about 16%+ you can stack it with melee expert and start shredding zombies fast and quickly.
lvl 26-30: invest into anything tbh. At this point you already got most of the perks/skills/stats needed to speed rush through any situation.
But the best use imo is head hunter for the sole fact that it affects 4/5 weapons in-game (pistols, rifles, shotguns, and smgs but not melees).
Still other perks to consider instead that help just as well:
-trucker=since you’ll be doing missions alot having default MPG (miles per gallon) and inventory slots helps save a ton on fuel. You also won’t have to be going back and forth since you can carry a mini-trader in your car like meds ammo and food/water or just store ♥♥♥♥. Just make sure you have some extra food and drinks on you for the trucker helps with fuel consumption not so much hydration and energy depletion when traveling.
-Brute strength=having knockback and stun can be very useful if you wanna keep zombies back during OA especially in greywood.
-marksman=makes your guns more accurate. Landing headshots or accurate shots from a medium-long range is just more convinience especially on bosses. Also once again those precious seconds you spend aiming can be reduced heavily over time.
-looter=maximizes looting of both buildings and bosses to get in get out and have a higher % chance of finding superior/rare/elite items even when normally looting/scavenging for items. If anything the loot speed helps more than the rarity buffs. Looting faster=more xp per loot and less time spent looting. If you plan on looting an entire building/area then this THIS is your go to.
!!!!!!!!!! I highly recommend getting looter for the sole purpose of loot speed !!!!!
but again other perks may work better in this instance. Though looting faster not only is for the xp but also for items or to get some income for when you need to buy items at the traders. You may think 1-2 seconds of looting may not be alot but think about how often you loot and how much time it’ll save you in the long run.
Also gives you a much better chance at getting a higher rarity lootable item (from normal loot runs car parts, clothing, or weapons while bosses only give clothing/weapons but you’ll be able to roll the dice slightly in your favor more). Doesn’t mean you’ll get a guranteed elite or even rare item 24/7, but the odds are better in your favor with this.
overall the build described is to help you not only do a single thing the very best/efficient, but do everything moderately and do it relatively faster. You take advantage of every second-millisecond of time saved by doing everything faster and accumulating it (for example looting say saves 2 seconds each loot time but X multiply that by say 100 loot spawns in a day= 200 seconds saved well little over 2 mins and 40 seconds + whatever other time you’d save rushing from point A to point B).
YES I KNOW OTHER BUILDS EXIST THAT CAN SHRED THE UNDEAD FASTER or do ♥♥♥♥ like loot more effectively but this is a versatile speed build. It’s not supposed to be do one thing good but rather do everything moderately enough that you’ll be able to siphon as much xp as possible in very little effort/time (especially considering that boss hunting takes time AND MONEY, having a side looter buff makes you close in the $$$ gap for later builds/when you reach 5th prestige or whenever you plan on stopping).
Perks to get/build tl;dr version
Skip all the text and just get what you came here for huh?
lvl 1-5 in order:
-fast learner
-sprinter
-reload
-jogg
lvl 6-20:
same as previous. Lvl up all the way to lvl 20. so for example: fast learner II (2), sprinter II, reload II, Jogg II, then lvl 11 Fast learner III, Sprinter III, etc. until you max it out at V (5) at lvl 20 all of them
lvl 21-25:
-melee expert
Lvl 26-30:
whatever you want but would recommend highly head hunter or looter (both are good but looter is better for looting and clearing a building faster in terms of search speed especially if looting in a party).
What perks to avoid and why
There are more perks/stats/skills than just what i listed. They were however the best b/c the entire point of the guide is speed. Some skills can still be useful but really not overall or as versatile.
Still some may be useful during end-game/end prestige/end lvl setups when you got nothing to lose. But for the time being they should be disregarded or lowered in priority for lvling up.
somewhat useful:
-quickshot and marksman=both work hand in hand but require to use both to be used effectively thus replacing one of the other better useful perks/skills. Quickshot makes you attack faster and aim faster with any gun. Marksman makes you also aim faster and more accurate and at longer ranges. In other words both combined are actually a deadly combo on any gun (being able to accurately line up your shots and keep your shots while shooting faster). It actually is a good combo on any of them + another gun stat like smg expert, shotgun expert, etc. but you’ll be limited if you take this approach (though it wouldn’t matter too much for a prestige 5 when you wanna choose a solid build).
Though i did say quickshot would help fire faster it really isn’t useful unless you get an smg or shotgun with large ammo ammos as pistols and rifles need time to focus.
-kick=again it’s okayish but the entire point is maximizing xp gain as fast as possible. It’s actually decent on a shotgun or melee build b/c it can keep zombies away especially when reloading.
-dodge=pretty okay if you have a low lvl sprinter and 5 jogg. Helps to avoid damage and save on sprint.
-sneak=same as kick mostly for a melee/looter build but aside from that it’s overall useless once you get found out/discovered. lvl 1 sneak is okay anything past that is too much. Though eventually once you wanna stop lvling up/reach max prestige you can do a stealth build for a character as it is incredibly broken atm and under certain conditions can be outright op’d:
[link]Still a lvl 1 sneak and some item buffs can get through enough for the time being
-any of the gun experts (shotgun, smg, rifle, and pistol expert)=they’re okay. But for this guide if you choose one you’ll gimp yourself to only that weapon and they each got their own roles. Being versatile is better for lvling up than sticking to doing one thing.
-lockpick=single use stat. After lvl 1 you can pretty much max out easily with high lvl 20+ items up to 100%. Though those item stats can better go into something else.
For all the above it’s somewhat effecient to get them all at lvl 1 then boost them up with item stats buffs (such as; again, lockpick then getting 24% lockpick chance on items to maximize it to 100% without needing to lvl up lockpick past lvl 1 to unlock the ability). However there are much better stats to focus on. Not to say you can’t carry some items for the purpose of doing that then switching but it’s much less hassle to not get these till the last prestige and focus on what you have in front of you.
-Hunter/Exterminator=both on their own build aren’t bad tbh. But this is a lvl up / prestige build. Using them will not only limit you to more damage on certain enemies:
exterminator=normal and special non-boss infected zombies
hunter=mutant bosses aka chiors, mothers, fingers, juggernauts/roid hulks/titans, tendrils, their bloody/charred versions, and lvl 1-lvl 5 special infected mutant bosses that are slightly bigger/taller than their normal non-boss counter part zombies (also they take a couple more shots to down them vs being able to one shot special infected zombies with high headshot and infected damage).
Once you decide to settle though, these 2 skills will help tremendously to either be able to down hoardes of zombies in higher lvl areas when looting/outpost attacks, or bosses with a boss build.
not very useful:
-mule=you really don’t need it when you can easily double if not triple your inventory capacity with clothing items. 10 slots don’t make a difference unless you wanna do a looter build
-thick skin and immune system=really not so much useful unless you wanna go for a melee build. Any single gun even a lvl 1 pistol can pretty much keep burning and bacterial zombies away. The only real danger are bacterial and burning zombies as the other (bloody/irridiated) zombies need to touch you/hit you to give you the debuff.
-assassin=not really useful b/c pvp is sadly atm pretty low/underwhelming.
-toughness and medic=both go really well hand in hand but one doesn’t do much without the other. It actually is better to have this for a looter/merchant build to save up on using too many meds. Also for PvP builds where a small buff in health would significantly inc. your odds of survival….BUT AGAIN PVP IS ATM NOT KICKED OFF YET TO BE EFFECTIVE TO FARM XP FROM 24/7.
-survivor=again works better mostly for a looter/merchant build. You don’t get high off your own supply and whatever you use will last you awhile.
Stats, weapons, and ammo and how to use them
Alright so there’s some things you wanna look out for when lvling up:
Every 5 lvls you unlock something new. At lvl 20 you unlock everything that is lootable. At lvl 21+ you only get better max stats for any item but nothing new is unlocked.
edit: scratch that you get more items every 5 lvls in terms of weapons with the new update including new 38special ammo.
Any and all ammo you should use/keep. Only thing is excluding 9mm ammunition and smgs. They’re too stat hungry and cost too much to be useful. You’re better off selling the 9mm ammunition for cash b/c it usually sells like hotcakes and there’s always a market for them. 12 gauge is a 50/50 sometimes but overall they’re more effective without investing too much into it (well all 3: pistols, shotguns, and rifles are and smgs are pretty much the only gun you need to invest highly into in terms of stats to make use of the lower damage but higher fire rate nature of the guns).
You should upgrade to the next tier weapon (be it melee or gun) asap once you reach the next 5th lvl (5, 10, 15, etc. even past lvl 20 25, and 28 and avoid lvl 30 until you reach 5th prestige).
To maximize on the 1st section on the different ways to get xp. You’ll have to invest into some gear for the following but it’ll be well worth it:
-During outpost attacks melees reign supreme for killing normal infected or just keeping them away form the door (on greywood mostly).
Getting weapon attack speed on 1 melee is enough even without melee expert. Also helps to get some %damage vs infected and %knockback/stun duration stats on the melees or clothing. If anything though melee speed is enough. Again the point is to keep them away and the default knockback is enough. It’d be best to avoid spending ammo on outpost attacks and instead use the method described. Let everyone else use weapons while you just take out the low health zombies (skinny zombies) and keep them overall away from the door.
Having a big boost in melee speed helps a ton in greywood. It may not gurantee a 100% success rate for the outpost but at least it’ll help extend the time before it fails a little longer giving you more chances to kill zombies and get xp for it.
-Melee and pistols are very useful for looting.
High ammo on pistols (100 ammo units per box) and no ammo for melees. The 2 melee method can be used for looting and is preferred until you reach lvl 25+ when on fire and bacterial zombies become extremely common (though you can still pretty much loot lvl 20 areas and get more or less the same $$$ from loot runs).
Also carrying around little to no ammo means you have more space. Having %inventory capacity, %damage vs infected, and %search speed maximize your looting and clearing out a room. Headshot% doesn’t take as much a priority (b/c again in lvl 20 below melee attack speed is enough to dispatch them, just avoid the on fire or bacterial zombies as much as possible).
-Rifles and shotguns are rather very useful for boss fights. Having a good +% mutant or %headshot comes in handy a ton and saves on both ammo and time. Also having %reload helps you not get caught with your pants down.
% jogg and % sprint speed are extremely important if you’re going after juggernauts and especially tendrils (though tendrils should for all purposes be avoided with this build since there are some builds that are better for dealing with them more effectively/killing them faster with much less hassle). You can still go after them but you’ll need some serious %jogg and %sprint speed as well as careful tactical knockback shots and movement to avoid getting killed.
-Car parts imo having a high inventory slot >>>> MPG, MPH, and fuel capacity.
This is mostly due to being able to carry a ton and for any situation on the road. Also some quest items specifically ask for things like meds and water. Having a small surplus (About 2 of each resistance giving meds and water) can gurantee easy xp by just going back and forth from your car.
Always leave with a fully fueled car before doing missions/moving around alot.
in all cases you should have footwear with both %jog and %sprint speed. Everything else can be mixed and matched to fit the situation.
I think on average every stat has at least 4 items you can find/equip it on (for example jogg stats can be found on pants, shoes, and the 2 weapons while reload can be found on the gloves, head/hat accessories, and of course the 2 weapons).
Also on average the % stats vary but are usually enough to reach or get close to 50-75% if you add them all up (though some can go just under/up to 100% or slightly more depending on the stat %’s). Most of these can be commonly found very high on superior items (rares have them but hard to get them all at high enough stats and even less for elites vs superior items that have at most 3 stats but usually stick to 2).
edit: ♥♥♥♥ all what i said last statement/paragraph. Rare enhancers/elite enhancers are a thing now so you just need the right stats and you can lvl them up higher.
Mission Guide: how to use it and what do focus on first and foremost
There’s a website that actually has most of the missions (the ones people turn in anyhow). It’s linked in the top and on the pinned posts in the forums. The guide is pretty good as it tells you where to go, what to do, and where to turn in the missions. There are 5 main types:
-Find X item
-Find X person (2 types alive and deceased)
-Exterminate
-Blood Samples
-Bring X item
Each one giving varying xps and cash. There’s either a description of the missions on your character menu that tells you where to go/start and where to come back to. Vice Versa, if you find an item (an item from a deceased zombie, an item that you loot, or a blood sample from a zombie) it’ll usually tell you who wants it and a vague area of where to find them. NPCs that give these quests/missions can be found directly in all 3 outposts, and some found when exploring buildings.
Ranking order in which you should prioritize would be:
1. Find X item=Should be the top priority of the list. Most of these missions usually give a good amount of XP and cash once completed. You don’t need to find X person to turn in which means you can go directly to X location, find the item (necklace, formula milk, allergy tablets, anti-depressants, broach, wedding ring, etc.), and go back to the location of the quest NPC it belongs to.
2. Find X person (deceased)=Along the lines of Find X item this is basically the same thing. The only difference is that you gotta kill a zombie and loot the corpse sometimes. Aside from that you can easily go directly to the area and get the item quick and simple (usually a thing like an ID tag, name tag, wallet, or credit card).
3. Bring X item=Rather than going to X location, finding X item, and then coming back, these quests are very straightfoward. NPCs want something (meds or water typically: water, iodine tablets, burn kit, anti-biotics, or bandages).
Remember how i said vehicle inventory takes priority? Well this is the reason. Putting at least 3 iodine pills, bandages, burn kits, anti-biotics, and water (takes up 15 inventory slots) can be useful for said missions (as well as backup incase you get a debuff or need hydration). The only reason they’re #3 on the list is b/c they don’t give as much xp or cash as finding X item or X person (deceased) (i think at most usually caps at close to high 900’s close to 1000xp while find x items usually goes beyond 1000 xp easily).
4. Blood samples=4th on the list is basically a mix of both find X person (deceased) and find X item. You gotta kill zombies and loot the corpses to collect the blood vials. These Vials have a certain number requirement to them (anywhere between 4-6 vials). You can actually kill and loot more zombies than you need vials. It doesn’t matter b/c when you turn them in they all get taken away (sadly you don’t get rewarded for your extra hard work lol).
They’re a lower priority mission b/c although the vials are in zombies that stand out (at least in higher lvl areas past lvl 15 areas), the surrounding zombies may be difficult to kill. The vial carrying zombies are usually normal non-special infected (no burning, bacterial, irridiated, or bloody zombie) zombies and usually stand out easily (again in lvl 15+ areas as lvl 10 and below still have normal zombies). Also if they’re not difficult than they may be in a large area and it’d take some time clearing out the larger number of zombies (for example they can be in a hallway with alot of zombies or a large package storage and shipping warehouse room).
5. Find X person (alive)=This is 2nd lowest priority on the list b/c it is a more tedious one. You gotta 1st find the person who gives the mission. Then you find the person who you need to find, interact with them, and then go back to the original person. If you find X person first then they’ll only talk with you or give you a pre-written message that other npc guards inside the outposts will tell you (or NPCs whom you already finished a quest for). You also cannot find X person (alive) and then go back to the quest giver.
This is a 2nd to last in terms of mission priority b/c it usually involves more time and fuel as well as going back and forth. Best to save them if you find them on your main route or if you have the time (and if they give sufficiently good xp anything more than 2100 xp imo is worth it).
And lastly the one i’d recommend avoiding at all costs if possible or leaving to the very end (unless they give alot of xp and are on your route and you can sprare time for it):
6. Exterminate missions=probably the lowest priority on the list. These take quite some time to do depending on the mission. There are some where you just have to clear the streets, but others you have to clear massive hoardes (from 50 and upwards). This is the most time consuming b/c you need to first find the NPC that gives the quest. Like the Find X person (alive) missions, it doesn’t count if you start it without talking to the NPC that gives the quest first. You need to find them, accept the mission, then start killing zombies.
The only upside to this mission type is that it works/pairs really well with looting. When you loot you pretty much clear out the entire rooms full of zombies. Thus taking this mission before hand, then going to loot the area is a more preferred method than just doing missions alone.
zombies: getting to know your enemies
There are alot of enemies in DF2. From animals to dead people / mutated dead people best to learn what is what:
-normal zombies=skinny and fat female zombies and male zombies. They are usually pale colored or light tanned. skinny zombies (male or female) are easier to kill and the standard zombies. Fat versions are harder to kill and tank more. Male zombies are tankier/have more health and damage than female zombies (order goes from weakest to strongest: skinny female, skinny male, fat female, fat male).
-normal sprinter and vomit zombies=normal zombies but after lvl 5 some have a chance to run after you. After lvl 5 zombies you start seeing some that also can vomit on you causing you to get a bacteria infection which reduces stats and causes you to lose 1 health per minute until treated with anti biotics or you die and respawn.
-special infected zombies=basically color coated zombies from above but each one can cause a debuff or aliment towards you. You can cure debuffs from zombies with the right medical item, paramedic bags (cept radiation sickness those are only from iodine tablets), or dying and respawning with no debuff stats. Special infected zombies are default stronger and more tankier than normal infected zombies but still follow the same order of which zombie is stronger. Special infected zombies can be found in lvl 15+ areas.
bile/fly zombies are zombies that have become infected (well more infected) via decaying and disease ridden. if they touch you, then you can get a bacterial infection which causes reduced stats and to lose health. Ones with flies can debuff you by just being near you and cause you to lose some health too. You can cure it with antibiotics or a paramedic bag. Or if you die
Irridiated zombies glow green and cause you to become irridiated if scratched. You can cure it with iodine tablets They also have the highest health of any special infected.
burned or charred zombies glow red and can cause you to become or have severe burns. On-fire zombies will be burning and can damage and burn you through non-contact and being close enough to you for the fires to reach like fly zombies. Your debuff causes you to get/take more damage but you do not lose health over time unlike the rest. Can be cured with burn kits or a paramedic bag or if you die.
blood/bloody zombies have red skin covered in blood and other features like enlarged finger talons. These zombies will debuff you with bleeding if they attack you. You will lose alot of health more than the other debuffs. It can be cured with bandages a paramedic bag or if you die
children zombies=are a new zombie type added to DF2 recently (when i’m writing this). They are small but faster than their normal infected “grown up” counterparts. They are weaker though than their counterpart normal zombies (child girl, child boy, skinny female, skinny male, fat female, fat male, and up the ladder with special infected). They come in special infected varities that also debuff same as their normal special infected zombie counterparts and are tankier than normal children.
crows=birds that swarm and attack you. Once one is alerted the others can be provoked too. They are found outside the city (as of recent open world updates they have been removed for the time being). They hover over you and fly downwards or lower to attack/peck at you. They’re easy to kill though with 1 melee swing or 1 bullet. They are; however, hard to hit in the air when they’re flying around. Best to be near a tree building or fence to get them to stand still long enough to hit them or crouch with stealth and swing at them when they lower. Found in lvl 10+ areas usually from havernbrook outpost and higher.
worms=after lvl 5 worms start coming out of normal infected zombies (or lvl 1 bosses). They also come out of mothers as her primary attack. They wriggle around the floor or ground and just come towards you biting at you. They have a rather decent damage but 1 swing or bullet or kick can kill them easily.
special seasonal zombies=zombies that only come around during an event usually around christmas, halloween, or easter. These zombies are bigger/taller and more tankier than their normal or special infected versions. They can easily be classified by the cosmetic on their heads (halloween=pumpkin heads, christmas=santa hats, and easter=bunny heads). They don’t necessarily deal more damage than their normal or special infected counterparts as far as i’ve seen and tested. These zombies will drop extra xp once killed anywhere from 1k xp to about 4k xp on the special infected versions.
mutants: the other zombies
Mutants are bosses that are stronger and tankier than normal varities of infected. They give more xp and have a chance to drop either a weapon or clothing item rare or elite grade (they always drop when killed but what it is, is completely random).
There are several types:
Mutant special infected zombies=these are special infected zombies but taller/bigger and more health and damage. They can debuff you if they attack you or through contact with on fire or fly versions. They’re the first bosses you meet in lvl 1 areas. At lvl 5 they start to sprint. Afterwards you don’t really see them anymore in lvl 10+ areas at all.
mid-lvl bosses
-mothers=pregnant females fused with their fetus unborn children. They spawn worms which are their primary form of attacks. If you get hit by one it can be a one shot kill though. spawns in lvl 10+ areas
-fingers=medusa like enemy that if you stare at it long enough you’ll be blinded and take damage. That is their primary form of attack next to physically clawing at you. spawns in lvl 10+ areas
-chiors=many heads that would make bethoven cry. Choirs are formidable bosses due to their long range screams which damage from afar. spawns in lvl 10+ areas
end game bosses
-juggernauts/roid hulks/titans=whatever you call it (official wiki is roid hulks) the very muscular L4D tank looking bosses if the tanks sprouted legs. These will rush at you and have high stamina despite their bulky frame and claw at you if they catch up to you. They are also incredibly tanky. Spawns in lvl 15+ areas
-tendrils=DF1 staple common infected turned boss in DF2; tendrils are fast and very hard hitting as well as long range enemies. They have the highest range next to chiors in-game as well as the hardest hitting damage on par with roid hulks making them the true end-game boss. spawns in lvl 20+ areas
special infected mutants (mid and end game lvl bosses)
there are, like normal infected zombies, special variants. These variants can debuff you if they touch or contact you (on fire and fly ones will if they get close enough without even needing to touch you). The special infected versions have more health, speed, and damage than their normal variants
special infected mid-lvl bosses (mothers, chiors, and fingers) spawn in lvl 25+ areas while end-game bosses spawn in lvl 25+ (roid hulks) or lvl 30 (tendrils) areas.
Avoid Juggernauts and Tendrils; Go after the other bosses instead
Just thought i’d point this out that they should be avoided if at all possible (at least the bloody versions and the normal tendril)
With the build you can outrun a normal juggernaut.
A normal tendril and the bloody versions of both (jugg and tendy); however, will require more jogg or sprint speed/duration as well as high headshot and % damage vs Mutants to kill them (even the normal juggernaut is a bullet sponge without a good setup).
You can take them on with a high enough damage or speed buffs but without a proper build you’re pretty much gonna be wasting more time effort ammo and money killing 1. The xp is nice but honestly not worth the effort with this build.
Bloody chiors, mothers, and fingers as well as the normal variants are fairer game. Also bloody versions can easily be killed in a large party (4+) or a small party of 2-3 people. It’s the preferred method since going in solo would be more tedious and resource consuming vs hunting in a party.
Same concept for Regular juggernauts/roid hulks/titans in a group to reduce ammo costs.
Tendrils and bloody juggs/tendies though, even in a group, are very very dangerous and should be avoided period!
If you plan to go after them regardless (in a group at least with this build/guide) you need to prepare and have a good sprinter/jogg team boss kiter and plan incase they start chasing you I.e. stay near the door(s) to not only block zombies from entering but also an emergency escape incase they switch to you as a target.
Boss hunting in groups is actually a good way to maximize the outpost buffs as well as other xp buffs from items or events. Everyone shares xp but with your xp buff items you can pretty much make up some of the lost xp, get some decent loot, and have some fun helping other players.
MONEY MONEY MONEY
It’s no secret that money is gonna be your main resource in-game. With it you can essentially sell off all your excess or unusable/less used items guns or ammo. There is a direct correlation between money you have and how much faster you lvl up.
Sadly this is a zombie apocalypse and money is only useful as backup toilet paper since civilization falls. This has to do with nothing backing it (gold and silver are now useless while say ammo and fuel is indispensable). Basically Venuzuela in virtual reality (Venuzuela online lol). Still for all purposes money can be used to liquidate your items and amass for whenever you need them. Since you only get 20 slots for the storage and 20 for the car default (no items or account upgrades) liquidating your assets into money are like tickets.
Sadly the money becomes more worthless as more and more people gain it through missions, selling, and scrapping.
A better understanding as to how money fluctuates is in my other guide i wrote when the game first came out (it will follow DF1 at one point but because money cannot be looted and there’s no cash shop it’ll take a long longer to reach 1 million for the best weapons/gear or 25k for the best/strongest ammo grades):
Also a small section about how to make or maximize the best profits.
Well anyway
tl;dr
imo the BEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY
is to use 1 of your characters, max it out, and use it as a looter character for the time being until you reach max lvl on your main character.
you can do missions and scrap even low lvl items like damaged normal superior rare and even elite items if they have ♥♥♥♥ stats.
Still the #1 BEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY IS TO LOOT LOOT LOOT AND MORE LOOT.
AND
SELL SELL SELL AND SELL AGAIN
Take advantage of every event or outpost attack and just sell en mass or prepare before hand with listings and let the people chew through the listings. Eventually they’ll reach your items and someone will buy them as they’ll be the lowest priced.
Just make sure you can be reasonable priced. $100 over the average will sell faster than $200+ at the time.
you should almost always have AT LEAST 10K IN THE BANK FOR EMERGENCIES. This includes events and times when you can gain more xp but things go up in price especially ammo.
pre-prestinging setup
Some important things you may wanna do before prestiging. Highly encouraged but you don’t have to do it:
-get some low lvl items. If you do it right you should be able to equip lvl 7+ items or 10 if you really really really grind
-do the outpost attack before you prestige to gain extra additional xp and things like finding more ammo everytime you loot ammo.
-do some missions before you prestige (may wanna save all the greywood missions since they’re all easily turned into in the greywood star hotel and in one place). doesn’t mean you can’t do high lvl missions but the risk is minimized and you don’t have to remember where the NPC mission quest turn in was.
-stock up on low lvl ammunition (i think you can’t really use 2nd grade ammunition till you reach lvl 10 for most guns so get a ton of grade 1 ammo like: 20 gauge, .32, and 5.56 ammunition)
-stock up on high lvl items like paramedic bags. Things you can’t really get at lower lvls.
-refuel your car. Though fuel is somewhat abundant it’s better not to risk it.
-sell your higher grade ammo at the trader. Can’t use it for a bit so may as well not have it cluttering your inventory, storage, or car storage slots. You can save your clothing or weapons that you’d like to keep. If you don’t got room though scrap or sell.
Prestiging
So you got to lvl 30 and now you have 1 extra stat point. What to do?
Simple !!!:
follow the order again with fast learner 1st, then sprinter, reload, etc. The added benefit of this is that you can lvl up the perks faster. In other words at lvl 5 you can lvl up fast learner AND sprinter instead of waiting for lvl 6 normally.
Do this for 1st and 2nd prestige until you reach 3rd
At 3rd prestige you can pretty much get all 4 starting perks at lvl 1 (3 bonus +1 starting stat=4) and at lvl 5 have all the stats to lvl 2. At lvl 27 you’ll have 3 extra points left so you can choose whatever perk/skill/stat you want by then. I’d highly recommend going back to the previous section on 25-30 recommended stats.
Also a huge recommendation would be prestige in a high lvl outpost like greywood or havernbrook. Before you prestige collect a ton of missions to turn in, You can easily slide from lvl 1 to lvl 5+ up to about lvl 7 by just turning in missions.
It is shown below though i didn’t take before/after pics of lvl 1 to lvl 5 after prestiging but i did get an example of a 2k+ xp mission that jumped me from lvl 5 to lvl 6. The other mission was also a 2k xp+ (about 2,800 xp) that jumped me from lvl 1 to lvl 5 by just turning it in across the street from the one in the screenshots.
You reach max prestige eventually:
When you do, i’d say ditch the fast learner perk and just overall the entire build and start choosing your specialized build (be it for boss killing, pure melee only, pistol build, rifle build, looter build, smg build, etc.). I’d still recommend sprinter as a must have perk for emergencies for any build to outrun danger.
Well actually no. Fast learner can be useful if you wanna farm rare enhancers/dyes but for a serious build you can ditch it for another skill.
Say for example if you wanna go full boss build, for example, i’d say pick a gun, fire rate or accuracy (whichever is better for the weapon such as shotguns fire rate but pistols may wanna get more accuracy), hunter (%mutant damage), head hunter (%headshot damage), and reload as well as speed skill (sprinter or jogg) if you wanna go after tendrils or juggernauts.
Congrats you just lvl’d up to current max status
Nice.
What do we do now?
What do you mean? Now we can finally play the game
oh yeah
Kennieth add a 2nd smg to your hotbar
Side Note: Rare Enhancers + This guide = Easy stat items/$$$ from selling them.
Thanks to a recent update once you cap the max lvl (with or without prestige) you get 1 enhancer and random dye color after earning 100,000xp past lvl 30 (you don’t lvl up past lvl 30. but you get the items and all debuff stats removed/health replenished as if you lvld up).
I guess this build could also be useful for helping achieve max xp gain from all sources. Not necessarily at max prestige but you can stay a bit at lvl 30 (any prestige below 5) and accumulate some enhancers and items to enhance.
Superiors imo are miles greater than normal b/c they already have base stats: Jogg, %xp gain, %infected/mutant damage, sprint speed, %headshot damage, etc.
Seems that it doesn’t lower the stats (i mean you need to be max lvl to get one so makes sense).
The stats imo that you should go after if you plan to stay on max lvl (for awhile or permanently) would be xp gain, jogg, reload, and % infected/mutant damage to be more versatile.
Headshot doesn’t really do much for melee but it can still work for all the gun weapons.
Weapon specific damage/buffs should also be avoided since it doesn’t carry over to the overall versatility of the build. In other words it only affects THAT weapon not your second weapon or stats unlike say % damage vs infected or %jogg %xp gain, etc.
Also to note that if you have the looter perk it may help with obtaining superior items more easily/faster in loot runs. Getting a couple of items with %find superior items may help to more easily utilize the rare enhancers and get the %stats you want for your current character/future final character build once you stop prestiging/reach max prestige 5.
last note is if you’re using enhancers don’t use high superior items. Things like say 30% headshot would have a high chance being reduced to say 18-24% or below. With this low lvl items are preferred. Try to keep it at the bare minimum lvl you’ll find the item (so like scorpions can be looted at used at lvl 5 while say sledge hammers can be found at minimum lvl 20). Try not to get items past lvl 22-23 (mainly for lvl 20 items like sledgehammers and fireman helmets but for other items any lvl below lvl 18 imo is a good lvl to have below but it also depends alot on the stats they have).
If you don’t wanna keep the items from rare enhancers (and just wanna get rid of clutter in your storage boxes/car/on your character’s inventory) then try to get sought after stats (headshot mutant damage lockpick jogg sprinter and reloading). At max lvl they can fetch quite a pretty penny tbh.
Lastly
upgrading superior car parts is a must. If you have any superior car part with inventory capacity you can pretty much max it out to 20%-30% average (depends on the part generally fuel injectors, cylinder heads, and exhausts have lower inventory capacity while roofboxes and tires have more). I’d recommend staying to upgrade at least the roofbox to get a massive boost in storage and fuel capacity for your car to spend less and have more room for bring item quests/emergencies.
since this guide is a speed guide i’d be inclined to tell you to ditch this until you reach max prestige/the prestige you wanna stay at.
But
Because of the way you can earn more xp faster it may be a good idea (if you want) to stay at lvl 30 before prestiging for just a little while. I’d say upgrading all 5 car parts (fuel injector, exhaust, cylinder heads, tires, and roof box) for more space and fuel capacity/mpg/mph. Helps make things a little smoother when focusing on lvling up to the next prestige (less time and money spent on fuel and going back and forth to make room new loot or restocking by storing extra ammo in your car).
edit:
New update made elite enhancers a thing for prestiging. Same concept but now prestiging = free elite item
Side edit: Books
Because of a recent update you can now loot books again (infintely) and now books give 500xp each instead of 100.
This means that taking %find books may be a good idea. It also means that there’s a hidden bonus to looter is having %find books items and looter making it a little faster to find said books and get some insane xp easily.
Side edit: extra xp messages
After extensive research
Turns out you do get them the message just doesn’t show on the damn messages (at least for books it says 500xp but you can get more xp with xp boosts/item boosts).
Idk why misisons are bugged like this but for all purposes missions do give extra xp.
THEY JUST DON’T ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SHOW IT
New: Chainsaws go Brrrrrrrrr
Alright so a recent update (when i write this) added chainsaws.
they function like an immobile sentry where zombies come to you.
3 new weapon types:
-hedge trimmer lvl 10
-dilmar lvl 20
-Ronan lvl 30
(not too sure on the last 2 since i got them superior at max lvl i gotta check).
edit: Ronan pro yes lvl 30 dilmar still pending.
for outpost attacks:
-tested they’re pretty useful so long as you don’t have debuff zombies (i’m talking the on-fire or fly zombies). With the right stats you can kill zombies fast and easy. exterminator + lumberjack
-best used at or near the door or chokepoint so zombies line up for you from one side
for normal killing:
-same as outpost attacks but avoid debuff zombies.
for bosses:
-actually bad since it has not much knockback or the way it works they get a small knockback immunity till the timer resets allowing them to hit you
ammo type:
-fuel is okay. Not much use after the cars were decomissioned when open world happened (aside from traveling from outpost to outpost).
-oh my god having 1k+ ammo is basically a close ranged smg.
btw headshot buffs don’t seem to count but you can hit them in the head to decap them.
if i were to rank this weapon i’d put it below melee for it has dps but only on non-debuff zombies and if you maximize zombie damage. Otherwise it sorta sucks if you keep getting hit so many times.
new boss: tall child that spits
No name yet coined from the community or Apwn but it’s a big child looking boss that spits acid at you like DF1 mothers. Girls btw.
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Boss difficulty: Not much. Shots are rather easy to dodge at distances since they take time to travel but having alot of zombies stop you even once is bad. Slower than a special infected chior and goes around the pace of a fingers boss (normal non-special infected type).
Actually would advise people to hunt in pairs for this one. She is very tanky and the other zombies are the problem now. Her attacks are meh unless you literally stand still (i’m not joking atm you can sidestep the attacks easily by just tapping shift to run or if you got jogg keep jogging even at around 60% jogg).
found in +25 lvls up
new: update unique weapons, old relics done away with, and GM
seems relics were not removed just obselete now with new unique weapons. Alotta changes to scrapping = prices will rise for a bit.
GM (gold membership) is a thing now but thankfully only for xp boost and loot quality. Semi-p2w but so long as it doesn’t include any weapons armor OR AMMO it doesn’t bother me too much (plus already reached the max lvls already both characters).
new boss: Get out of here nemesis
New boss added the stalker
(sorry for the crappy screenshot i was too busy running away from it to take a good shot)
a nemesis like boss unkillable and follows you through all rooms. Or if not nemesis the bullet sponges in dead space that just never seem to die (forgot their names).
While other bosses try to scratch charge suck your blood scream your ears or bleed your eyeballs blinding you, this behemoth of a peak zombie boss with somehow a beer belly (or maybe something other than beer) just beats you to death. Good luck running because this athletic prowess of a mutant boss that would put Usian Bolt to shame can literally outrun you (hell i saw it outrun a tendril and she got a headstart).
While unkillable there are some ways to counter it just like the dead space and resident evil enemies that are somewhat similar:
-running away to an outpost (works 100% of the time)
-running away to an npc safezone in a room (it can be bugged though so not 100%)
-losing it in a building by sneaking around it.
-damaging it so much it goes down for a bit allowing you to escape (warning: it does take some good damage and bullets so unless you plan on getting rid of stacks of ammo just down it once and run away to a safezone).
-baiting it with someone else (not recommended if you don’t wanna be blown out in the chat but a good strategy).
-outrunning and hiding from it for a good 5 mins or so until it despawns and gives up.
Luckily you can knock it back a bit with bullets or melee if you feel brave enough. It has a rather copious amount of health so best to be attacked in a group then run away.
You can get a hint of when it’s on you or how close / nearby by the music. Once it changes from either the zombie hoarde or the regular looting music / outdoor music to a more faster paced tones that’s when you know you’re being hunted. It can be indoors or outdoors but once you hear it start finding a safezone / heading towards an outpost.
Best strategy to escape it is:
-If jogg keep running
-if spring tame it and don’t use more than 1/2 your sprint at any given time
-shoot it once when it starts sprinting towards you.
-shoot it whenever it gets too close afterwards (i think the stun delay on weapons or kicks is 2-3 seconds)
-try to corner strafe it around cars or buildings or other zombies
-use other zombies to block its path (still works with other bosses so why not this one)?
if you lose it you get a phenomenal 10k xp for just not dying (lol).
here i got a better screenshot of it:
